Season One
by deadwomanwalking
Summary: This is the first in a series of story's I'm calling AU Walking Dead. It starts from the beginning of the series with a twist. There are mutations, and these mutations caused the walking dead, including other things like Glenn to getting pregnant, or Merle regrowing his hand back. Now the group has no idea what to expect. R&R please. Don't own, am making no money off of this.
1. Chapter 1

Days Gone Bye

_Two years ago a pandemic of epic proportions rocked the world; the dead started to come back to life and attack the living. This is a story of how we survived, came together, the people we lost the city's we had seen destroyed. A tale of our will to live and the choices we were forced to make, as well as the people we met along the way that we've both cared for and had to leave behind. You will hear from several of us, so first we must go back to two years ago, before I ever arrived at the camp outside of Atlanta, I had been in a coma and when I woke the world was changed forever._

My name is Glenn; I was sitting near my tent at the time, as I looked around the camp. Three months have passed since the dead started to rise. I came to Atlanta to find a friend, would you believe that I had traveled all the way from Macon, it was easy once I got a car. And this sweet girl I forget her name now gave me a walkie-talkie so I could stay in touch with others, hopefully. The first person of my new life that I look at is.

The use to be Deputy Shane, the woman that shares his camp is Lori, she's not his wife at first I thought she was. But apparently her husband didn't make it, so she stays with Shane and her young son Carl. Shane's a bit of an ass but he seems to mean well, plus he doesn't give me a hard time. Lori loves her son and it was clear she missed her husband but I'm not blind I've seen the looks he gives her; I know something's going on between the two of them.

Next to them was the Peletier family. The husband and father Ed is abusive to his caring, quite wife Carol, and the way he looks at his innocent daughter Sophia just isn't right.

Then there's Andrea and her younger sister Amy. Amy is kind and has been looking after the children, Andrea I'm not sure about, she seems protective but I haven't really talked with her much. They've been holding up in Dale's RV. Which brings me to Dale and Jim.

Dale is an older man who's clearly bonded with the sisters on a fatherly level, though he's like that with everyone. The man Jim sticks to Dale most days, he was a mechanic before the dead started eating his customers and he had to leave in order to survive.

Then there's the Morales family, the husband who seems to prefer to go by his last name has his wife and two children with him, they're okay. Morales is packing some supplies at the moment, he knows some things about the city so he's joining the scavenger party, we're all running low on supplies. He's also talking to.

T-Dog and Jacqui who are the only African Americans, if you want to be politically correct, if not then you have the Dixon brothers who are loud red-necks. Jacqui's good at standing up for herself against the Dixon brothers, she also seems close to Jim and is planning to go with us to the city. T-Dog has been able to ignore most of the verbal abuse slurred his way from Merle the older of the brothers. Daryl's not so bad, when he's not around Merle, in fact I notice Daryl pick up his cross bow, I've never seen him without it and head into the woods.

I head in after him, over the past couple of weeks I've gotten to know Daryl rather well. The part of him that he keeps hidden from pretty much everyone, especially his brother. Of course considering who his brother is that's more of a survival instinct. I look around after losing Daryl's trail, which isn't a surprise, Daryl's a good hunter, tracker and I would say lover, but Daryl seems emotionally cut off. I don't know much about Daryl before the dead started to eat the living, but what I do know is that he cares for his brother.

I gasp as I'm spun around pushed against one of the trees and my mouth is soon ravished by Daryl who has his cross bow slung across his back. "It's been a long time Chinaman." Daryl whispers in my ear. The nick name has grown on me, it started as a clear cut insult and has turned into a pet name that I'm starting to enjoy even though I keep correcting Daryl that I'm Koran.

I soon found myself on the ground with Daryl on top; we were both naked, at some point during making out Daryl had managed to strip us of our clothes. Daryl put his fingers in his mouth for the lack of lube that I haven't been able to score lately during my scavenging, along with condoms.

Daryl quickly prepared me then entered in a rush. We didn't have time to draw this out; we were both horny and in need and I want him so bad. I wrapped my legs around Daryl's waist as he thrust fast and hard as I tried to stifle my moans of pleasure at the feeling of Daryl's cock in me.

He's not the first man I've been with, I dated my boss for a time but I found out real quick that his nice persona was all a fake. More on that later.

I bit the palm of my hand to keep from crying out, the last thing we need is to draw any walkers to our location, not like we've seen any out in the woods for the last several weeks we've been here, all the dead are in the city. But we've been trying to keep our relationship a secret, mostly because of Ed and Merle.

At some point I ended up with my hands around Daryl digging my nails into Daryl's back. Daryl had a grip on my waist doing the same; I knew there would be bruises when this was over. If Daryl notices he'll apologize and then kiss them, which is like one of the only times he lets down his guard.

We both came at this point, me first, but Daryl quickly followed into pure oblivion. I made my lip bleed a little trying not to scream out; Daryl's good at biting off his noises, I wonder if that's from his past or just who he is.

Then I slipped up in the afterglow of my orgasm, I said something that I wasn't sure if Daryl was ready to hear or not, but it was completely true I was falling hard for Daryl and I couldn't stop myself.

"I love you." I regretted it the moment it left my mouth, the look on Daryl's face as he pulled away from me. I didn't want to take it back, it was true, and I would never take back anything I say to Daryl that's from the heart.

Daryl stood up and started to dress. Daryl's not good with words, that's been very clear over the last couple of weeks I've known him. So he stumbled a little on what to say, he gave up once he finished. He grabbed his cross bow and headed into the woods to hunt, it's what he does, he's been getting us most of the meat we've had the pleasure of eating. Merle hunts too sometimes I guess, I wouldn't really know I try to avoid him as much as possible.

Once I could no longer see Daryl I got up cleaned myself off and dressed, I had to get back to the camp we needed to leave soon for the city. I was use to going to the city by myself before I found this camp, I'm good at scavenging, but now that I was here they wanted to go with me. It's a bad idea but I had been out voted.

I got to camp, it was time to leave and go to Atlanta, I told Shane and Dale we'd probably be back in a few days. I told them I'd keep in touch with the walkie and then headed out on foot, cars make too much noise and we need to be as quite as possible at the moment.

We made it to the store by nightfall and slept there, with a person on watch just in case, but by morning the walkers or geeks which ever hadn't noticed us yet. They were milling about the streets. While we'd been looking for things that would be useful or needed T-dog and Merle had gone to the roof, Merle had found a nice spot to keep a look out. Andrea and I got up there too while Morales looked for things his family needed. We wanted a look at our surroundings. I knew my way around the buildings so if we needed a quick escape I was the guy to follow.

It was a couple of hours later when we heard something, it sounded like hooves from a horse, I looked and sure enough there was a guy riding a horse, like from a western galloping into town. I saw this ending badly. I ran to a different building to try and get his attention, the guy was riding into a herd of walkers and didn't know it.

I stopped several buildings over, that was near an ally way, and then I saw the horse go down, watched the guy loose what had looked to have been a bag on his back. I couldn't be sure from here but looked like there was stuff sticking out of it. I watched as the man crawled under this tank that had been left when the army had tried to take back the city and failed. The geeks were following him, I was sure the guy was a goner.

But as I watched I saw the guy pop out of the top of the tank, then he went back in closing the hatch that was now surrounded by the undead. I took out my walkie and turned to the army frequency. It took a few seconds but I'm sure I got it then tried to contact the guy.

"Hey you, dumbass. Yeah, you in the tank, are you cozy in there?"


	2. Chapter 2

Guts

I sat on a log, after losing this deer I've been trying to heard closer to camp. No way am I dragging that thing miles through these woods without help. So if I can get it closer then it won't be a problem and we could all have venison for once.

He loves me; I couldn't stop thinking of what Glenn had said. It must've been a mistake, all my life I'd been told I was unlovable. So the fact that this, _one kid_, that I've pretty much treated like shit, unless we were alone that is, loved me seemed impossible. It had to be a trick. The more I thought about it the madder I got; it's these thoughts that made me loose the deer in the first place.

So, I was blaming Glenn for losing the deer, and my bad mood and then I convinced myself that he didn't really love me, he was just trying to make me drop my guard, he was trying to trick me. Which wasn't going to happen, Merle and I are going through with the plan once he gets back. We're going to take what we need and leave; I don't need anyone else but Merle.

With that decided I got up from the log, steadied my cross bow and headed off to find that deer, then get it back to camp.

* * *

"Hey, you alive in there?" I asked, after a few minutes from my last try, I waited for a response hoping I had the right frequency. I was relieved to hear his voice on the other end when he finally picked up.

"Hello? Hello?" He sounded breathy and panicked which is understandable considering what just happened. I was still watching the tank from my perch on the roof.

"There you are, you had me wondering." For a second before he'd answered I thought maybe I'd been wrong, he had been bit and was dead or something.

"Where are you, outside, can you see me right now?" The questions rattled off, I felt sorry for the guy, he was alone in a tank surrounded by walkers, and it was obvious he was clutching to my voice like a life line. Which is how I'd probably feel if I'd been in his situation.

"Yeah, I can see you." I wanted him to know that he wasn't alone; I was going to help him out of that tank and somewhere safer then where he was at that moment. "You're surrounded by walkers, that's the bad news."

"There's good news?" He asked me, I had wanted to give him hope but I couldn't lie to the guy, he needed to trust me if I was going to save his life.

"No." I hated saying that, I was technically telling him that he was screwed six ways from Sunday.

"Listen, whoever you are, I don't mind telling you I'm a little concerned in here." He didn't have to tell me I could hear it in his voice. But it wasn't any better on my side of things, watching hundreds of walkers go after that horse, it was a feeding frenzy and frankly that did not help the nausea that's been building since this morning.

"Oh man, you should see it from over here; you'd be having a major freak-out." Like I'm trying _not _to have. I left that part out.

"Got any advice for me?" Most advice these days is don't die, but I guess that's a moot point. So I told him the only thing that came to mind.

"Yeah, I'd say make a run for it." He had fifty-fifty odds here, so he might make it. With them going at the horse like they were it would give him a leg up.

"That's it? 'Make a run for it'?" I could hear the skepticism in his voice. I got a little closer to the edge of the roof; I was in front of the fire escape to the ally.

"My way's not as dumb as it sounds, you've got eyes on the outside here. There's one geek still up on the tank but the others have climbed down, and joined the feeding frenzy where the horse went down. With me so far?" I quickly rattled off what I could see so he could make his escape.

"So far." The doubt has left his voice so it sounds like he's listening.

"Okay, the street on the other side of the tank is less crowded. If you move now while they're distracted, you'd stand a chance." I informed him, I'd hate to see this guy end up as walker food so I hopped he was fast. "Got ammo?" I asked as an afterthought. Seeing as that would help in his escape.

"In that duffel bag I dropped out there, and guns. Can I get to it?" So that's what was sticking out of the bag I saw. Man that really sucks. It was surrounded by walkers.

"Forget the bag, okay? It's not an option, what do you have on you?"

"Hang on." Yeah, easier for me then you pal. I thought to myself, once those walkers are finished with that horse he'll never get away, he'd better hurry. I was slightly anxious which didn't help my stomach any as the need to throw up grew. I must have a bug or something, the last time I was sick from the walkers was when I first got attacked. I was in shock and threw up after throwing the guy onto a picketed fence and he still tried to eat him. I ran after that, just leaving him there, I've been fine ever since. Until now that is, his voice was back, bringing me out of my reverie.

"I've got a Beretta with one clip, 15 rounds." What could I say to that?

"Make 'em count." I hoped that the walkers would be too distracted with the horse to pay attention to any other sounds. "Jump off the right side of the tank, keep going in that direction. There's an alley up the street, maybe 50 yards, be there."

"Hey, what's your name?" He wants my name; he needs to start running now.

"Have you been listening? You're running out of time." Maybe the shock of what's happened is getting to him and he's not able to pay attention, that the situation is bad.

"Right." Good I hope he's moving. I store the walkie in the tan pack on my back then I head down the fire escape to meet up with him, and then we'll head back to the store where the rest are waiting.

As I rush to meet him I hear gun shots being fired, that has to be a good sign. At least the guys alive and moving. I get to the fence and open it he aims his gun at me I start backing up as I shout out. "Whoa! Not Dead! Come on, come on." With my hands and body in a follow me jester as I head back the way I'd come, the guy who looks a little worse for wear right behind me.

"Back here!" I am scared out of my mind as I keep moving, a part of me just wants to run all out and not stop until I feel safe but I know I must stay calm and get this guy to the others so we can all get out of here. I keep waving and repeating him to follow me. I get to the escape ladder I'd used and head up. I'll have to remember to get this guy's name if we live through this.

One thought keeps going through my head as the adrenaline pushes me onward, is that I hope to live to see Daryl again, even though I know he may not want to see me or have anything to do with me after what happened but I just want to see him and let him know that I do love and care for him.

I heard him shoot again I look down real quick and ask/scream at him. "What are you doing?! Come on!" I can't believe he paused to shoot some more, at this point he might get the idea that that's just wasting bullets and precious time he doesn't have.

I get to the cat walk and turn to give him a hand, I take in his clothes and realize that at some point before all this he'd been a cop, a sheriff deputy by what's on the badge, or he stole a guy's clothes but I don't think so with the way he's wearing that badge.

Once up we take a breather I lean against the rail looking down thanking God once again that Geeks are too stupid to climb, trying to get out breath back, though I'm not as out of breath as I'd expect. As the adrenalin starts to come down I realize just how sick to my stomach I feel, it's even worse now that I'm closer to the smell, it takes a few seconds of swallowing to get it under control.

Then I look at him, I can't help myself. "Nice moves there Clint Eastwood, you the new sheriff come riding into clean up the town?" Ask anyone I'm a smart ass; I swear that's how it looked.

"It wasn't my intention." He tells me, I'm sure it wasn't, it was just a real stupid move.

"Yeah, whatever. Yeehaw, you're still a dumbass." I reaffirm my pack on my back for a moment.

"Rick, thanks." That's introduction, so the guy's name is Rick and he's thanking me, that, was unexpected, he holds his hand out there waiting.

Might as well, "Glenn, you're welcome." I shake his hand, then he puts his gun in my pack before going to the ladder, looks like their trying to figure out the whole climbing thing.

"Oh no." I see one starting to climb up. It's time to go, I grab onto the ladder and look up, it's a long way up, I turn to Rick. "The Brightside, it'll be the fall that kills us; I'm a glass half full kind of guy." I start heading up, Rick right behind me.

We go through a door once on the roof and across a small section put there to connect the buildings and up onto another roof. As he asks "Are you the one that barricaded the alley?"

"Somebody did—I guess when the city got overrun." Yeah that barricade was here when I arrived, I've wondered about it myself. "Whoever did it was thinking not many Geeks would get through." I run across the building to a hatch so we can go down without the fear of getting eaten.

"Back at the tank, why'd you stick your neck out for me?" Good question, I only had one answer for that.

"Call it foolish naïve hope, that if I'm ever that far up shit creek, somebody might do the same for me." Yep defiantly naïve, how many guys would be dumb enough to stick through necks out there for a complete stranger. Rick got lucky, I'm that dumb, and I tell him so. "Guess I'm an even bigger dumbass than you."

We head down, Rick shutting the hatch. I get on the ground and readjust my pack on my right shoulder after it started to slip off. Then head through the building, looks like an office type of some sort. I open the door and headed down the stairs that had been a fire escape.

I bring out my walkie and start talking to the guys waiting for me to return. "I'm back, got a guest plus four Geeks in the alley." We get down the stairs and there are the Geeks I mentioned, right in the way of where the door to where the others are. I stop short upon seeing them head our way.

We slowly back up, when the door opens and two of my friends come out wielding bats. And protective gear over the legs, arms, chests, and faces. I couldn't tell who it was, but it didn't really matter as long as the Geeks get taken out and we get inside.

As they pummeled the Geeks I shout to Rick, "Let's go!" As we ran past them into the building that was our safe haven at that time.

Heard one sounded like T-Dog say "Morales let's go!" Then followed us in closing the door behind them.

Andrea and Jacqui were waiting inside; once the door was closed Andrea pushed Rick against one of the shelves her gun pointed in his face. "You son of a bitch we ought to kill you." Andrea threated, she was pissed and probably scared just hiding it through her anger. That's okay I'm scared myself but killing the guy we just saved won't solve the problem.

Jacqui was leaning against more shelves as this room seemed to be where they stored stuff they were going to sell, Morales was taking off the protective gear, as T-dog secured the door, I dropped my pack once the door was locked.

"Just chill out, Andrea, back off." Morales said, trying to defuse the tense situation.

Jacqui was now next to her as well. "Come on, ease up." Jacqui's like that, she's nice and kind and tries to help everyone.

Andrea looked at her like she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Ease up? You're kidding me, right? We're dead because of this stupid asshole."

Morales got right next to her, he must have noticed that at any moment she was liable to pull the trigger. "Andrea, I said back the hell off."

Rick surprisingly enough was calmer than most in his current position. I knew I'd be freaking out, though maybe he just had a good poker face. Morales finally said what she probably wanted to hear as we waited and she had yet to move. "Well, pull the trigger."

She finally dropped her arm and said what she'd been feeling; "We're dead, all of us, because of you."

Rick looked at us, as he was calming down from the adrenaline rush, we all were trying to get our bodies under control. "I don't understand." He told us.

Morales stepped up and grabbed Rick's arm heading out of the storage room. "Look, we came into the city to scavenge supplies." Morales started to explain on the way. "You know what the key to scavenging is? _Surviving_." Morales pushed Rick in front as the rest of us followed him, I brought up the rear after Jacqui. Morales continued with his lecture to Rick. "You know the key to surviving? Sneaking in and out, tiptoeing. Not shooting up the streets like it's the O.K. Corral." Morales had a good point there.

We got to the front room where the windows were and it was easier to see outside, that was part of the problem with our fear at the moment, we could see them, as Rick looked out Morales said the part that was crucial to this whole situation. "Every Geek for miles around heard you popping off rounds."

Andrea spoke and it sank in for Rick. "You just rang the dinner bell." You could hear the Geeks, smell the decomposed flesh and it made my skin crawl, not to mention the nausea I'd felt earlier was coming back with a vengeance.

"Get the picture now?" Morales finished up, as realization dawned in Rick's eyes. The dead were trying to get in, breaking at the first set of glass doors that protected us from them with a rock and their fists and unlike them, we get tired, we have to sleep,_ they_ don't.

We started to back up as T-dog spoke the unspoken for us all. "Oh God." The glass is breaking and the fear from earlier was coming back as well, I realized I needed a bucket but swallowed compulsively which helped a little.

Andrea asked what I myself had been thinking. "What the hell were you doing out there anyway?"

"Trying to flag the helicopter." Was Rick's answer. I thought the man was nuts, later on I'd find out he wasn't, at that point there wasn't anyone, but there were men in helicopters looking for survivors, but that's later in our story.

"Helicopter? Man, that's crap, ain't no damn helicopter." T-Dog said in disbelief.

"You were chasing a hallucination, imagining things, it happens." Jacqui told him calmly.

"I saw it." He said, believing that what he'd seen had been real.

T-Dog must've found a C.B radio while I'd been out as Morales said. "Hey, T-Dog try that C.B, can you contact the others?"

Rick picked up on that. "Others? The refugee center?" He asked. I hated that all we were giving this guy was bad news.

"Yeah, the refugee center. They've got biscuits waiting at the oven for us." Jacqui said sarcastically, it appears her patients with Rick were starting to run thin. Did this guy know anything, all his actions tell of either naivety at the situation or stupidity.

"Got no signal, maybe the roof." T-Dog said, speaking about the C.B, it appeared that the radio can be rather finicky at times

Then a gun shot went off, that could only mean trouble, more importantly the sound came from above us, and there was only one other person that had tagged along and wasn't with us at the moment. Andrea said what we were all thinking. "Oh no, is that Dixon?"

"What is that maniac doing?" I asked, I can't stand that guy, even though I am completely in love with his brother.

"Come on, let's go." I heard someone say, a bunch of voices were speaking so I couldn't pin point it, at the time it didn't really matter as we all headed up to the roof.

Two more shots went off before we made it to the roof, we'd rushed up the stairs Morales getting there first with a shout at the man. "Hey, Dixon, are you crazy?!" Merle just laughed. Which might have answered Morales' question. He kept shooting, I knew bringing him along was a bad idea.

He finally turned with the gun, a riffle in his hand. "Hey! Y'all be more polite to a man with a gun!" He sounded just like any other loud mouthed red neck that treated me like shit; I should know my parents lived next to one for years

He got off the ledge of the building as he came towards us. All I wanted was for everyone to calm down, Dixon to put down the gun and to throw up, which now I was finding difficult to do, I was nauseous yes, but I didn't feel the need to go vomit. I just wished I did.

"Huh?" Dixon asked as he'd been waiting for a response. "Only common sense."

T-Dog made a mistake as he went over to him yelling at the man which never helps. "Man, you wasting bullets we ain't even got!" Dixon just laughs, I hate his laugh. T-Dog continued. "And your bringing even more of them down on our ass! Man, just chill."

That started Merle's raciest remarks. "Bad enough I've got this taco-bender on my ass all day. Now I'm gonna take orders from you?" It was more of a rhetorical question. He answered it for us anyways. "I don't think so, bro. That'll be the day."

T-Dog should've let it go, but he had to fuel the flames some more. "'That'll be the day'? You got something you want to tell me?" He asked after quoting Merle.

Morales tried to stop it, "Hey, T-Dog man just leave it." He must've seen where this was headed too, nowhere good that's for sure.

"No." T-Dog told Morales.

"It ain't worth it." He told T-Dog, and Morales' was right, Merle isn't worth it. "Now Merle, just relax okay?" He continued.

I of course had to say something as well hoping it'd calm things down. "We've got enough trouble." Trying to remind them that the fights with the dead not with each other.

"You want to know the day?" Merle asked.

"Yeah." T-Dog answered, I wish T-Dog had just left it alone.

"I'll tell you the day, Mr. 'Yo'." Merle said mocking T-Dog. "It's the day I take orders from a nigger." Of course that pissed T-Dog off and he threw a right hook at Merle who easily countered it with the butt of the riffle he'd still been holding. Then Rick headed over telling them to knock it off as the girls were telling them to stop as well.

Merle hit Rick, knocking him down, then turned and kicked T-Dog in the stomach. I couldn't take it anymore, I turned then got on my knees and vomited, the fighting continued on behind me. I turned back just as Merle put a handgun in T-Dog's face who was now on the ground with Merle straddling him. Fear shot through me, as I stood, was he really going to do it, shoot T-Dog.

Andrea was begging him not to do it, T-Dog was whimpering in pain, I was feeling sick again and Merle just looked at us, as if daring us to say or do something.

Merle spat on him, and then slowly started to stand up as he said. "We're gonna have ourselves a little powwow, huh? Talk about who's in charge." T-Dog started to roll over, Andrea, Jacqui and I grabbed him to help him up as Merle kept talking. "I vote me, anybody else? Huh? Democracy time, y'all." He just stood there with the gun waiting for anyone to go against him, give him a reason to pull that trigger.

He started to ask for votes, a show of hands who was in favor of him in charge, of course his hand went up, Morales shortly followed, I don't blame him, mine went up, then Jacqui's, Andreas. T-Dog was still on the ground supported by Jacqui as he held his side. "Yeah that's good. Now that means I'm the boss, right? Anybody else?"

During all this no one myself included seemed to have noticed Rick as he spoke up. "Yeah." He hit Merle in the mouth with the same gun that Merle had hit T-Dog with. Then he took out his cuffs after Merle had gone down and put it on his right wrist, then a small piece of pipe on the roof.

He pulled Merle up till his back was again the tube that had been on the roof and had the pipe connected to it. "Who the hell are you, man?!" Merle asked hastily.

"Officer friendly." He turned and grabbed the gun that had fallen from Merle's hand when he'd been hit. He took out the bullet in the chamber as he spoke. "Look here Merle, things are different now. There are no _Niggers_ anymore, no dumb-as-shit, inbred white-trash fools either. Only dark meant and white meat, there's us and the dead. We survive this by pulling together, not apart."

Merle turned to him. "Screw you, man." Merles one of those that won't change his ways no matter how different the times become.

"I can see you make a habit of missing the point."

"Yeah? Well, screw you twice."

"Ought to be polite to a man with a gun." Rick threw Merle's words back at him as he cocked the gun and put it to Merle's temple. "Only common sense."

The rest of us were waiting for it to end, Jacqui was using T-Dog's bandana to stop the bleeding from his lip.

"You wouldn't, you're a cop." Merle said, not believing that Rick would pull the trigger.

"All I am anymore is a man looking for his wife and son." Rick is capable of doing it, just like any of us are if it comes down to it to protect ourselves and loved ones. "Anybody that gets in the way of that is gonna lose, I'll give you a moment to think about that." He pats Merle down and pulls out a small vile with some white powder in it, might be cocaine. "Got some one your nose there." Rick tells him as he flicks his nose, then stands up.

"What are you gonna do? Arrest me." Merle says as he laughs. "Hey! What are you doing? Man that was my stuff!" Merle yelled as Rick threw it over the roof to the Walkers below, the rest of us just watched, Andrea was still taking care of T-Dog. In those moments I din't once regret risking my life to save Rick's, it's paid off.

As Rick walked away Merle started to threaten what he'd do to Rick if he gets free of the cuffs keeping him prisoner on the roof, he just kept tossing out insults and other things I've chosen to forget.

Rick had walked to the edge of the roof, Morales went to talk to him, I was too far away to hear what they were saying. But I did hear thunder rumbling, it would be raining soon.

Jacqui and Andrea were at one of the other ledges as I sat on some metal stairs that attach to the walkway over the pipes that Merle is currently cuffed to, it helped with the nausea to be off my feet. "God it's like times square down there." Andrea commented as she looked at the Geeks down below.

Rick and Morales walked back, I was trying to get my walkie to work, T-Dog is sitting against the ledge next to where Jacqui's standing and working on his walkie, I can hear static coming from it. "How's that signal?" Morales asked as he walked up to them.

"Like Dixon's brain, weak." T-Dog answered.

"Keep Trying." Morales told him.

"Why there's nothing they can do, not a damn thing." Andrea said.

Morales looked at Rick and explained. "Got some people outside the city is all, there's no refugee center that's a pipe dream."

"Then she's right we're on our own." Rick said. "It's up to use to find a way out."

"Good luck with that, these streets ain't safe in this part of town from what I hear." Merle put his two cents in. "Ain't that right sugar tits?" He asked Andrea, who had moved from the ledge to a red pack lying on the roof closer to Merle. I hated the way Merle talked to or treated Andrea. "Hey, honeybunch, what say you get me out of these cuffs, we go off somewhere and bump some uglies?" Andrea while trying to ignore him was cleaning her hands with a small handkerchief and then put it back in the bag. "Gonna die anyway."

Andrea finally spoke. "I'd rather." She got up and started to walk away.

"Rug muncher I figured as much." Merle disgusts me as I looked down at my walkie in my hands and just sat there.

"The streets ain't safe." Rick said.

Morales was still next to him. "Now there's an understatement." He said.

"What about under the streets? The sewers?"

"Oh man." Morales turned around then and spoke to me. "Hey Glenn check the alley. You see any manhole covers?" He asked as I stood up and looked over the edge to see, I saw a couple of walkers no manholes.

"No, must be all out in the streets where the Geeks are." I told 'em.

"Maybe not, old building like this built in the '20s, big structures often had drainage tunnels into the sewers in case of flooding down in the subbasements." Jacqui explained.

"How do you know that?" I asked.

"It's my job—was. I worked in the city zoning office."

So we all headed down to the basement, everyone following me, we'd gotten flashlights so we could see better in the darkness of the basement, except Merle or T-Dog, he was still hurting and decided to keep an eye on Merle.

We found a place that goes right down into the sewers. "This is it? Are you sure?" Rick asked me.

"I really scoped this place out the other times I was here, it's the only thing in the building that goes down." I explained. "But I've never gone down it, who'd want to right?" They looked at me, so maybe I was a little bit of a coward, the things I've seen it's reasonable. It was clear from the looks on their faces that it was time to head on down. "Oh, great."

"We'll be right behind you." Andrea told me.

"No you won't, not you." I informed her.

"Why not me? Think I can't?" This wasn't about her.

"I wasn't-" I paused.

Rick was next to me he put a reassuring hand on my arm and said. "Speak your mind."

"Look, until now I always came here by myself, in and out grab a few things no problem. The_ First _time I bring a group everything goes to hell. No offense." I didn't say it to upset them but they needed to know how it was. I continued. "If you want me to go down this gnarly hole, fine, but only if we do it my way. It's tight down there, if I run into something and have to get out quick. I don't want you all jammed up behind me getting me killed. I'll take one person." Rick started to move, I stopped him. "Not you either. You've got Merle's gun and I've seen you shoot. I'd feel better if you were out in that store watching those doors covering our ass."

I pointed to Andrea then. "And you've got the only other gun so you should go with him." Pointing to Morales I said. "You be my wingman, Jacqui stays here. Something happens yell down to us get us back up here in a hurry."

Jacqui nodded with a quick. "Okay."

"Okay, everybody knows their jobs." Rick said after I told them what to do.

I put the end of the small black flashlight I'd been holding between my teeth, grabbed the top to the ladder after turning around and headed into the great dark unknown. My heart was hammering and for a second I felt dizzy and light headed as I slowly made my way stopping as my feet landed on the ground. I moved away then waited for Morales.

I looked down the tunnel flashlight back in hand, taking a deep calming breath, I looked back up and saw Andrea and Rick go off to do their parts. Morales turned to me and waited for me to take the lead and head into the tunnel. I could hear rats squeaking and as I walked water was splashing, the last thing I want is to run into a Geek down in these tunnels. But with no other choice we went on ahead to find us an exit.

I must have stepped on a rat's tail 'cause it screeched and I jumped slightly, I hate that, I hate rats and I hate walking into the dark. I kept moving forward. My nausea coming back full force, we kept moving.

After about ten maybe fifteen minutes walking we found a grate. "Yeah, we've got ourselves a sewer tunnel." Morales said. The problem would be that iron grate baring our access to the sewer. "Jacqui was right." Morales continued as we walked up closer to get a better look.

"Can we cut through it?" I asked.

"If we had a blowtorch and half a day, sure. Dale's hacksaw sure as hell won't do it." We shined our flashlights at the top and it was cemented into the walls. A noise caught are attention and we looked down and saw a Geek eating a Rat, I freaked as it reached through the bars, we backed away and started heading back, a few minutes everything caught up to me and my stomach revolted. I told him to wait as I went to one of the walls and threw up. Morales laid a hand on my back. "You did the same thing on the roof, are you okay Glenn?" he asked.

I just nodded as I spit a few times, then stood up. "It's probably just a bug, I'll be fine." I told him, then we headed back to the rest, let them know that this is not our way out. I thought sarcastically how they'd just love to hear that.

As we reached the ladder and climbed to the top we heard glass shatter upstairs. Jacqui, Morales and I all ran to the store front. We saw they'd broken through the first glass between us and them, then started working on banging on the only glass protecting us from them.

Rick turned slightly to Morales, while still keeping his eyes on the walkers. "What did you find down there?" He asked.

"Not a way out." Morales answered.

"We need to find a way." Andrea said, speaking what was on all our minds I'm sure. "And soon."

We went back up to the roof, after Rick grabbed a pair of binoculars he saw on display. I kept the walkie in hand, I'm not sure why I just felt safer with it then without. We watched the walkers below on the streets and Rick used the binoculars to find us a way out. He must've seen something as he moved it away from his eyes then spoke. "That construction site, those trucks they always keep keys on hand." Rick said as he passed the binoculars to Morales. Morales double checked the site that was a good ways down the road from our current location.

"You'll never make it past the walkers." Morales told him. I hoped he was wrong it was our last chance.

Rick looked to me then. "You got me out of that tank."

"Yeah, but they were feeding, they were distracted." I told him.

"Can we distract them again?" Rick asked. Jacqui and Morales were leaning against the edge and Rick was looking at me, Andrea standing next to him, Merle was still cuffed behind me and T-Dog was still sitting watching us discuss this.

Merle spoke up. "Right, listen to him he's onto something." He pointed to me as I looked at him. "A diversion like on 'Hogan's Heroes.'"

"God, give it a rest." Jacqui said looking disgustedly at Merle.

Rick got us back on topic. "They're drawn by sound, right?"

"Right, like dogs they hear a sound, they come." I answered his question.

"What else?" Rick asked.

Morales answered this time. "Aside from they hear you? They see you, smell you and if they catch you, they eat you."

Something in that caught Rick's attention. "They can tell us by smell?"

"Can't you?" I asked

"They smell dead we don't it's pretty distinct." Andrea informed him.

"Then let's smell dead." Rick said then headed downstairs, Jacqui, Morales, Andrea, T-Dog and I followed. Rick started to grab things he saw that would cover our skin, rubber gloves, tan coats.

Rick told us his plan on the way down and as he grabbed the stuff I had to say something, voice my emotions on this one. "If bad ideas were an Olympic event, this would take the gold."

"He's right." Morales agreed. He walked over to Rick as he continued to gather things. "Just stop, okay? Take sometime to think this through." Morales tried to get Rick to calm down and think.

Rick turned to us as he said. "How much time? They already got through one set of doors that glass won't hold forever." Rick reminded us as he threw a coat at me.

We got back to the door that had gotten Rick and me into the building just a few hours ago. Rick and Morales once wearing the gloves and coats ran out to grab one of the bashed up walkers from earlier, while Andrea and I who was also wearing gloves and a coat watched their backs. I wasn't sure if my stomach would be able to handle this.

Once they passed us and Andrea was inside with them I closed the door securing it. Rick sighed as he put the visor down on his protective hat to keep his face safe from any blood spatter. Now after breaking the case with an axe in it he was ready to go to work on this very dead walker. I felt sick from the stench and we hadn't even done anything with it yet.

We were all now wearing gloves and coats to help protect our bodies. Rick raised the axe, but stopped before swinging down, he put the axe and protective hat on the ground. He kneeled down next to the guy and started riffling his pockets. I was confused at what he was doing. He pulled out the man's wallet and it started to click, he wanted to know who we were about to gut.

"Wayne Dunlap." Rick read the license. "Georgia license, born in 1979." He took it out and handed it to me; I looked at it feeling a sort of sadness. Rick continued. "He had $28 in his pocket when he died, and a picture of a pretty girl." He flipped the picture and read what was on the back. "With love from Rachel." Rick then looked at us. "He used to be like us, worrying about bills, or the rent, or the super bowl. If I ever find my family I'm gonna tell them about Wayne." He put the guy's wallet back in his pants and then grabbed the helmet putting it back on.

I spoke up then. "One more thing, he was an organ donor." I'd seen it on his license. It must've helped as Rick picked up the axe, raised it then brought it down on Wayne. Andrea couldn't look as she turned way. Morales prayed, while I tried to keep whatever was left in my stomach in there. But the smell had gone up from bad to almost unbearable. Rick continued to hack his legs, arms, and torso till he was open and cuts hanging out. I wanted to look away but was compelled to watch.

Rick stopped and passed the axe and visor to Morales telling him to keep chopping. I couldn't stop from groaning, I felt so sick. I even spoke at this point. "I am so gonna hurl." Rick told me later, I knew he was right, now wasn't the time.

After a few more chops from Morales Rick asked. "Everybody got gloves? Don't get any on your skin or in your eyes." He told us. We realized it was time to dig into the guy. So with grim determination we started. Rick started to cover himself with the guy's insides, I followed suit knowing I was the best for his back up.

I hated it, as intestines were being put on me. "Oh, jeeze. Oh, this is bad." I moaned.

Rick tried to help. "Think about something else, puppies and kittens."

What T-Dog said next broke my will to not let my stomach go. "Dead puppies and kittens." That was it; I bent over away from the body and vomited the worse yet.

I heard Andrea speak to T-Dog. "That is just evil, what is wrong with you?"

Jacqui spoke to, I think it was to Rick I was too busy with my head down throwing up to really see, but my ears still worked. "Next time let the cracker beat his ass."

I had finished and was starting to get up when T-Dog said. "I'm sorry, yo."

I told him what I thought of him in the moment of throwing up. "You _suck_." Andrea was finishing me up with the guts.

Rick asked. "Do we smell like them?"

Andrea answered with a look on her face that was a clear yes before she spoke. "Oh yeah. Glenn." I looked at her as she handed me her gun. "Just in case." She moved part of the coat and put the gun in my pants.

"If we make it back be ready." Rick told them. I hated that word, if. It's been slowly becoming my new most hated word in the English language.

"What about Merle Dixon?" T-Dog asked.

Rick took off his left glove, reached into his pocket and pulled out the key to the cuffs. I knew we couldn't leave him, I'm having enough trouble with Daryl with him around, and I'd hate to see what Daryl would do or say if we left his brother behind, dick or not he doesn't deserve to die like that. Rick tossed T-Dog the key; clearly it was now T-Dog's responsibility.

"Give me the axe." He put the glove back on; then took the axe from Morales. "We need…We need more guts." We all groaned as he started chopping again.

I sometimes wish I could forget what went down that day, just block out the sights and smells and sounds but I can't, and looking back now I realize that I really don't want to. If I'd known then what would be changing my life several months down the road I'd probably taken a different course of action. Anyways.

So after we were finished covering our bodies in walker guts it was time to leave the building and go out there putting this plan into action. Walking out the door, with feet, hands and ribs hanging from our necks, covered in dead blood we reeked and luckily my stomach had calmed down somewhat for the first time that day.

We started our slow trek to the construction site, I heard Morales close the door shortly after we headed down. The thing that kept repeating in my head as we walked was to not get eaten, to make it through this in one piece and for my heart to stop pounding in my chest.

Rick had taken the axe and I'd grabbed a crow bar just in case they realized we weren't one of them. But we soon found that it was working. We couldn't go fast that would tip them off for sure.

We slowly walked to the end of the ally where a bus was parked. Rick and I got down on our hands and knees, then further on our bellies and crawled to the other side. I wasn't sure if it was the adrenalin or I just worked the bug out of my system but the nausea was gone by then. Getting up I looked and saw the words Metro Local on the side of the bus, I think it was a tour bus we'd just crawled under.

Focus, I told myself as we started again to the construction site and the walkers around us, just kept going not paying any mind to us. The thunder from earlier was getting louder, I had a bad feeling about that.

We just continued to walk; I tried to keep my mind blank, to not think about me possibly getting eaten. My mind started to wonder back to Daryl and yesterday's activities. Again I wished I'd kept my big mouth shut, I just wanted to see him again, tell him that I'm sorry and that I can't take back what I feel for him.

About half way to the site I spoke with my teeth clinched. "It's gonna work I can't believe it."

"Don't draw attention." Rick told him. Yeah, like I'm a complete idiot.

I growled after one of the walkers got to close it drew it away from me. The thunder was getting closer and becoming a continues rolling sound. Then what I'd been praying wouldn't happen, happened. It started to rain, we didn't stop walking though.

The blood was starting to wash away, if too much goes and they smell we're not dead, we are so dead meat. A couple of walkers were looking at us, oh no, I thought it's not working any more. I looked around and saw more staring at us and making noises of interest I'm guessing.

"The smells washing off it's it?" I asked. "Is it washing off?"

"No, it's not." Rick said, I think he said that to keep me calm, I had heard panic in my voice I'm sure he defiantly did. A walker looked at him, followed him, like the ones behind us. "Well, maybe." He admitted. I didn't want to hear that. One of them finally opened it's mouth and started to attack Rick lifted the axe and brought it down on his head splitting it. Rick then shouted an order I was happy to follow. "Run!"

We ran the walkers behind and in front coming at us. While Rick took them out with his axe. I hit them in the head with the crow bar I'd had a firm grip on. We finally made it to the fence of the construction site.

I saw the axe fly over the fence as I grabbed the top of it and using my feet practically jumped over the fence. I was in impressed and amazed at myself with how easy that was. I turned and helped Rick over then. My heart was pounding and the adrenalin was pumping and my head was hurting as my eyes wouldn't focus when the world decided it wanted to spin in front of me. Rick helped steady me for a sec then we got back into action.

We took off the coats and gloves that were no longer helping, as we ran from the fence that was getting walkers piled up behind it. I heard Rick shoot but didn't dare look back. I went to the box that should have the keys and using my crow bar busted the lock. I opened it and grabbed one of the keys. "Rick!" I yelled to get his attention. When he looked at me I tossed him the key.

I couldn't help myself as I looked back and saw one of the walkers climb over the gate, oh this was bad, this was real bad. We got to the truck; I started to close the door as Rick got the engine going. The walker was right at the window as the door closed, I told Rick to go in a panicked voice.

He'd put it in reverse and was going backwards, the gate was starting to come down. Once they'd pushed it to the ground, they were that much closer to their next meal. Rick then turned it and headed away from the walkers and away from the store. He busted through the other gate and turned left, I wasn't sure where he was going but at the moment I didn't really care.

"Oh my God, they're all over that place." I said freaking out.

"You need to draw them away." Rick told me. "Those roll up doors at the front of the store…That area? That's what I need cleared." Rick informed me then continued telling me what I needed to do. "Raise your friends. Tell them to get down there and be ready."

I pulled my walkie out as I asked. "And I'm drawing the Geeks away how? I-I missed that part."

"Noise." Was his simple answer. He stopped at a parking lot, we got out he found an expensive car and taking the crow bar from me busted the window in. The alarm started, I put my hands over my ears. Well that should work.

He got in and using a screw driver started the car. We traded places then as he headed back to the truck; I revved the engine then and headed back to the store where the others were waiting. I followed behind Rick's delivery truck at first. I grabbed the walkie and told them what to do. "Those roll up doors at the front of the store, facing the street. Meet us there and be ready." Is where I told them to go. Then I went around Rick's truck to draw the walkers at the store away. Only someone who's deaf would miss the noise this car was making.

I looked and saw it was working the walkers were following, this would work. I drove passed then backed up and got in front of the store and stopped. Waiting for them to come towards the car, I yelled to myself. "Get closer, come on, come on." Then with it still in reverse headed back with the walkers following. Once I was sure they were all following I spun the car around and started to take off.

I continued to drive, at some point I lost the walkers. But you know it didn't matter because I was having a blast driving this awesome car at top speed without a care in the world. I did hope Rick and the others made it out, I started for the high way and headed to the mountains and the camp site, if they'd made it I'll see them there. I was shouting and screaming in pure adrenaline, this is so much fun. Is what I thought, the whole way there.


	3. Chapter 3

Tell it to the Frogs

It was a couple of hours since we left Atlanta and Merle behind; I was driving the delivery truck, Morales sitting in the passenger seat. The girls Andrea and Jacqui with T-Dog were in the back and Glenn was off in a pretty cool ride probably having the time of his life. "Best not to dwell on it, Merle got left behind." Morales spoke up, my thoughts had been heading that way to the man we'd abandoned. I looked at him for a second it's easy to tell he'd hit the nail on the head of my thoughts. "Nobody's gonna be sad he didn't come back…" Morales continued, _still doesn't make it right._

"Except maybe Daryl." I looked at him again.

"Daryl?" I asked confused.

"His brother." Morales explained. I felt even worst then; my thoughts got derailed as I heard the alarm from Glenn's car coming up next to us. I could hear Glenn from the car, I saw his hand go out the window in a fist pump, he was having a great time. I followed behind as we drove out of Atlanta and into the hills where a lot of people use to camp before now, I always meant to take Carl camping but I never had the time. Now I may never see my son again or Lori.

"At least somebody's having a good day." Morales said. I agreed with him, it was good to see that, it helped a little bit with my doom and gloom mood.

It was a long trip the alarm from Glenn's car stopped a few minutes before we pulled up to camp. I saw him and a bunch of people gathered at the car; then looked at Morales as he patted my arm saying. "Come meet everybody." Then started to get out, I stopped the engine before rubbing the bridge of my nose. I think it was more emotional exhaustion than anything else that I felt

The idea of telling Daryl that we had abandoned his brother on top of a department store was not my idea of a great first meeting. On top of that I still had to find my wife and son, as well as my best friend if they were even still alive.

Before I got out of the truck I heard voices, one man's, who I will later come to know as Dale said. "You are a welcome sight. I thought we had lost you folks for sure." Not sure who he'd been talking to but they were laughing.

My mind still tumbled and the loss of Merle heavy on my thoughts I didn't even recognize his voice, but it was Shane that asked. "How y'all get out of there anyway?"

"New guy, he got us out." Glenn informed, I'd know his voice anywhere, after all he saved my life first.

"New guy?" Shane asked.

Morales answered that one. "Yeah, crazy vato just got into town. Hey, helicopter boy! come say hello." _Now or never_ I thought, I opened the door and stepped out, closing it behind him, I walked a little ways as Morales continued speaking. "The guy's a cop like you."

When I looked up, I couldn't believe who I saw, it was Shane, my best friend, my partner. He was alive, and that stirred hope in me that so was my family. The look on his face, one of shock and surprise made me breathless, I didn't know what to do and clearly neither did he as he just stood there his shotgun slightly lack in his hand.

Then I looked over and saw them, not far away, Lori talking to Carl who looked at me, that's all it took to get my feet moving. "Oh my God." I whispered, in both shock and a silent prayer of thanks. They were both alive and safe.

Carl pulled away from Lori and started running to me screaming for me, Lori chased after him as if she couldn't or didn't want to believe I was there. I couldn't hold it in as I got closer to him my emotions broke down and I started to cry, tears of pure joy as I got on my knees embracing him, my son. "Carl." I cried holding him in my arms for the first time since I woke up to this nightmare.

It took a moment for me to get my balance as I stood up still holding Carl I headed to Lori, I kissed Carl on the head; she was still in shock. But as I got closer she finally took the last few steps and wrapped her arms around me holding on, I never wanted to let them go. I hugged her with one arm while holding Carl with the other. I had my family back together, safe and alive, and I never wanted to lose them again.

Once everything had settled down we sat to eat and I started to tell my story, beginning with waking up alone in the hospital, I talked about my physical pain, the fear at the locked door with someone trying to get out, I talked about the bodies I saw, the woman who should've been dead but wasn't, I should say half a woman. The first thing I'd done was get on a bicycle I'd stumbled across, it'd been next to the woman, and peddled home for Lori and Carl. When I got there the place was empty, clothes gone, pictures taken at first I didn't know what to think.

"I walked inside screaming for you two, I didn't know what was happening, but once I could think straight past my fear I went back outside, sat on one of the steps to our front door just looking. A man had been there in a suit I thought he was alive he was headed for me I never heard the kid behind me until he hit me in the head with a shovel." I paused in my story to take a drink of water that Amy had been kind enough to get me, I felt Lori next to me I put my hand in hers before continuing.

"This man thought I was one of them, threatened to kill me but then I passed out. When I came to I was tied to a bed with him questioning me about my gunshot wound, thinking I'd been bit. I told I hadn't been he cut me loose. They fed me, explained things too, what had happened while I was out. They'd been staying at Fred and Cindy Drakes." I explained to Lori, they'd been good people; we'd had dinner with them on several occasions.

"The man he'd shot, before I passed out the man in the suit he'd been a walker, at the time I didn't know that, I didn't even know what a walker was. That night, that first night I saw them walking, I couldn't believe what I was seeing, they looked alive until they got up close." I paused in my story as Glenn asked one of the women if they had something for an upset stomach, whatever had been bothering him in Atlanta had still been bugging him, I thought it was a virus, I had no idea how far off the mark I was. She was Morales' wife that got him some crackers, told him they were a little stale but should still help him. As he ate I continued with my tale.

I explained about the man's wife, turning the knob, by morning they were gone. "Taking my first walker was hard, on me, I went back to the house, I knew you were alive." I punctuated that sentence with a kiss to both Lori and Carl. "If it had been ransacked they wouldn't have taken the pictures, only family would've done that."

"That's when Duane the little boy mentioned Atlanta, being safe. I took them to the station, the showers were still working; I finally got to wash and shave, dressed in my uniform and grabbed guns and gear things to help us survive. I emptied the cage, but I lost the bag in Atlanta."

I looked at Shane then who was sitting across the camp fire that had been started as the sun was setting and the air was getting cold. "Shane, I had to shoot Leon Basset, I couldn't leave him like he was; I even went back and shot that woman I'd first seen before heading for Atlanta."

"On the way my car ran out a gas, I tried the radio no one could hear me."

"Wait you were on the radio." Amy piped up then, that's when it came out the stranger on the radio had been me.

"I found this house, farm, with a horse, no gas so I put the bag on my back and rode the horse the rest of the way to Atlanta where it went down, I ended up in a tank and Glenn saved my life." I skipped over what I found in the house; Carl didn't need to know about that.

"What was it like, to wake up to all this, emotionally?" Amy asked, the sun had set and it was dark starting to get late.

At some point Carl found his way against my chest and Lori had moved her arm around mine. "Disoriented, that comes closest." I explained of my feelings, the emotions I'd held back of my ordeal waking up alone in that hospital.

The others: Glenn, T-Dog, Amy leaning into Andrea, Morales' family and Dale, all listening as I continued to talk. "Fear, confusion, all those things but disoriented it comes closest."

"Words can be meager things." Dale said as he placed his cup on the ground. "Sometimes they fall short." Dale was a wise man; in the coming weeks I'd find that he was the best among us.

"I felt like I'd been ripped out of my life, and put somewhere else. For a while I thought I was trapped in some coma dream, something I might not wake up from ever." Lori was running her hands through Carl's hair, listening, I don't think it had been easy on her hearing this, but it was something that at the time I needed to say.

Carl looked up at me then and it broke my heart to hear what he had to say. "Mom said you died."

"She had every reason to believe that." I told him as I put my arm around him and held his face in my hand. "Don't you ever doubt it?"

"When things started to get really bad." Lori started, back then I hadn't understood the looks between her and Shane, I knew that stuff had happened, truth was I just didn't want to know, I was here now that was all that mattered. I should've cared to know more then, maybe things could've worked out differently. "They told me at the hospital that they were gonna Medevac you and the other patients to Atlanta, and it never happened." She was playing with our sons hair, her other arm around me, my free arm around her, just a touch, a soothing touch on both of them.

"Well, I'm not surprised after Atlanta fell." I informed her. "And from the look of that hospital, it got overrun."

"Yeah, looks don't deceive I barely got them out." Shane informed me.

"You know? I can't tell you how grateful I am to you, Shane. I can't begin to express it." At the time, I was grateful, still am. But things change, people change, sometimes I think Shane was better suited for this new world then I was, that's what made us clash.

Dale with impeccable timing. "There are those words falling short again, paltry things."

We heard wood clatter and fire spit up as more food was added to a different camp fire. Shane spoke to the man, he had a wife and daughter, treated them both horribly. "Hey Ed, you want to rethink that log?" Shane asked him.

"It's cold man." He spoke back not looking at us as I saw his wife bundle up with a blanket.

"The cold don't change the rules, does it?" Shane asked. I had a feeling that a different fire was being stoked. He looked at me taking in my non-verbal question and answering. "Keep our fires low just embers. So we can't be seen from a distance, right?" That last one was for Ed.

"I said its cold." He informed Shane clearly not caring for the rules or the safety of anyone at this camp right now. "You should mind your own business for once." He told Shane; that just pissed Shane off. He got up and headed to the other fire; I watched him go then looked at Lori wondering if this was their only confrontation with the man.

He patted the guy to get his attention, walked around so he could look him in the eye and not the back of his head. "Hey Ed. Are you sure you want to have this conversation, man?" He asked softly I barely picked it up.

Ed spoke up not softly, to his wife. "Go on, pull the damn thing out." As she hesitated to move he said more forcefully. "Go on." She got up putting the blanket on the lawn chair she'd been resting in and pulled the wood from the fire. Shane was disgusted I'd seen that look before when we'd taken down a criminal; he stomped out the fire from the recently burning log.

The woman sat back down, I watched catching what was being said, we weren't that far. He crouched down to eye level. "Hey Carol, Sophia how are y'all this evening?" Thinking of Sophia makes me sad, but Carol's a strong woman, she had to be with the trash she use to call a husband.

"Fine, we're just fine." Carol tells him, it was hard to get a read on her back then.

"Okay." Shane tells hers.

"I'm sorry about the fire." Carol apologized, but it wasn't from her, it was for her husband. I got the sense that she did a lot of that, apologizing for her husband's actions.

"No, no, no, no apology needed." Shane informed her, it wasn't her fault. "Y'all have a good night, okay?" Shane asked before standing back up.

"Thank you." Carol said sweetly, she's always been sweet and kind and easy prey for men like Ed, always seeing the good in someone, at least she used to be, not so sure about that these days.

"I appreciate the cooperation." Then Shane walked back to our camp.

Our subject turned to something a little grimmer as Dale spoke up about someone I'd been trying not to think about. "Have you given any thought to Daryl Dixon? He won't be happy to hear his brother was left behind." He asked.

"I'll tell him. I dropped the key it's on me." T-Dog said.

"I cuffed him that makes it mine." I wasn't going to let T-Dog take the heat for this.

"Guy's, it's not a competition. I don't mean to bring race into this, but it might sound better coming from a white guy." Glenn told us, Merle was a raciest, there's a good chance that his brother is to, I hadn't met the guy so I didn't know, but they have. Sounds like I needed to be the one to tell him.

"I did what I did." T-Dog says. "Hell if I'm gonna hide from him."

"We could lie." Amy piped up next.

"Or tell the truth." Andrea started. "Merle was out of control, something had to be done or he'd have gotten us killed." She looked Lori in the eye as she spoke her mind, something Andrea never had a problem doing. "Your husband did what was necessary, and if Merle got left behind, it is nobody's fault but Merle's."

"And that's what we _tell _Daryl?" Dale asked in a voice that clearly stated 'that's a bad idea.' "I don't see a rational discussion to be had from that, do you?" He asked Andrea, she just shook her head after pulling her knees up and wrapping her arms around them, Dale was right.

"Word to the wise—"Dale looked around at us. "We're gonna have our hands full when he gets back from his hunt."

"I was scared and I ran." T-Dog said, trying to martyr himself. "I'm not ashamed of it."

"We were all scared, we all ran, what's your point?" Andrea asked him.

"I stopped long enough to chain that door. Staircase is narrow." Glenn and everyone were looking at him then with rapt attention. "Maybe half a dozen Geeks can squeeze against it at any one time. It's not enough to break through that—not that chain, not that padlock. My point—"He paused then, we were on the ropes of what he'd been getting at. "Dixon's alive.

And he's still up there handcuffed on that roof. That's on us." He was right, we're all to blame for what went down with Dixon, and now we have to fess up to his brother about what we'd done.

Everyone decided to turn in for the night, Glenn headed to his tent with what few crackers he had left, Andrea and Amy share a tent, Dale went to his R.V, I headed back with Lori and Carl to the tent they'd been staying in, Shane decided to be first watch that night, I had no idea how close he and Lori had gotten at the time, it was a chain reaction that would end in disaster.

Lori changed into shorts and t-shirt as I tucked Carl in his bed, a small cot with sleeping bag to keep him warm, he knelt next to him. "I found you didn't I?" I said as I ran my fingers through his hair.

"Love you dad."

"I love you, Carl." I kissed his forehead and just sat there watching as he rolled over and went to sleep. I'd put on some shorts that Lori had packed from my clothes, I decided not to ask her about it as I took off my shirt and walked over to her pallet, where she was lying and just watching me. I got down and put my arm around her as I kissed her, the first real kiss since I'd seen them that afternoon. I got behind her and laid down, she grabbed my hand and held it as I spooned closed to her for the night.

I kissed her cheek as we got settled, then I whispered to her. "I found you both."

"Yeah." She said.

"I knew I would."  
There's wasn't a doubt in my mind that I would find them.

"You're getting cocky now, a little bit."

"No. No, I knew, walking into our home, finding an empty house, both of you gone."

"I'm so sorry." There's true regret in her voice.

"I _knew _you were alive."

Thunder rumbled above us as she asked her next question on the verge of tears. "How?"

"The photos were gone, all our family albums remember." I told her. She laughed as she reached up and pulled one such album out. "I told you so." She was looking at me with those big brown eyes, watering and filled with love.

"Now you're getting cocky, huh? A lot." She asked; then opened the album so we could look at the pictures, our memories. I pulled out a picture I'd found in the house, it had been left behind from my pants pocket and placed it in the album. "It belongs in here." It was a family portrait only a couple of months before I got shot, and woke to this mess.

"Baby, I really thought I would never see you again. I'm so sorry…" She looks at me again and the thunder rumbled some more. "For everything, I feel like—when you were in the hospital I just—I wanted to take it all back—the anger and the bad times. But the mistakes—" I placed my hand on her cheek and kissed her again to stop her talking, I wasn't angry at her, not then, there are plenty of things I regret as well, the later months are one of those regrets and I can't say I'm sorry and it'll be better, not any more. I had a chance and I'd blown it, but back to where I'd been. I'd kissed her.

"Maybe we got a second chance, not many people get that." I leaned down and kissed her again with a passion. As I broke the kiss she pulled out her necklace, it was a heart locket with my wedding ring on it.

"I wondered where that went."

"Do you want it back?" _What kind of question was that?_

"Of course." I told her. She then unhooked the chain and pulled it off. Then placed it where it belonged, my ring finger. I haven't taken it off since.

She reached across turned the lamp off as we started kissing again, getting down to some serious making up. I looked at Carl's sleeping form. "He won't wake up." She told me. The rain had started to come down and the thunder wasn't as close. As I started to make love to Lori, kissing her, loving her.

We didn't waste time stripping our clothes, as I kissed her all over and slowly entered her body, we kept our noises down so not to wake Carl. I went slow and easy and took my time as I loved her and she kissed me and held me close the whole time, after we both climaxed I settle next to her and it wasn't long before we're both asleep in each other's arms.

I woke the next morning to the sounds of birds and children playing, I was alone as I rolled onto my back. The rain had stopped and the sun was out, I looked down and saw jeans, shirt and sneakers put out for me, I checked my bandage as I got up, it was good; then I dressed before leaving the tent. I told a couple of people morning as I walked by looking for Lori and Carl. Getting my barrens about the camp and the people here, watching as they went about the morning. I saw Carol taking care of some clothes.

"Morning." She said as I walked up.

"Morning."

"They're still a little damp." She explained of my clothes she'd been taking care of. "The sun'll have 'em dry in no time."

"You washed my clothes?" I asked surprised.

"Well, best we could, scrubbing on a washboard ain't half as good as my old may tag back home."

"That's very kind thank you." That was the first impression I got of Carol, a woman kind enough to wash a strangers clothes, she was too good for that husband of hers.

I moved over to where Glenn was standing close by watching the red sports car he'd driven up here. "Look at 'em, vultures." He was watching Dale, Morales and Jim taking it apart, it was a sad thing, but these days you don't need a fast fancy car you need a reliable car that has more use then its looks.

"Yeah, go on strip it clean." Glenn told 'em.

"Generators need every drop of fuel they can get." Dale told him as he passed with a gas can from the recently stiffened gas from the car. "Got no power without it, sorry, Glenn." He patted his arm and then headed off.

"Thought I'd get to drive it at least a few more days." Glenn seemed so sad standing there with his head hanging down wearing that red cap; never seen him anywhere without that cap. He had his arms crossed over his chest, I took pity on him and tried to cheer him up.

"Maybe we'll get to steal another one someday." I patted his back then headed to where I saw Lori hanging laundry on a line.

"Morning, officer." She said as I walked up, she was smiling, it was a glorious sight.

"Hey." I said as I noticed Amy and Andrea were smiling as they watched us, they were standing close by taking care of their own clothes.

"You sleep okay?" Lori asked.

"Better than in a long time."

She chuckled softly. "Well, I didn't want to wake you; I figured you could use it. God, what?" She asked to the expression on my face.

"I've been thinking, about the man we left behind." I couldn't get him off my mind, I thought I needed to go back for him, if T-Dog was right and he's still alive, I had to do the right thing, I didn't say that just yet.

"You're not serious." But she figured out where I was going with that last statement. A jeep driven by Shane showed up then as he pulled up and parked.

"Water's here y'all. Just a reminder to boil before use." I waved as he looked in our direction then looked back at Lori.

"Are you asking me or telling me?" She asked getting back to our conversation.

"Asking."

"Well I think it's crazy." _Don't sugar coat it darlin'_ I think, she continues. "I think it's just the stupidest way to break your—"She's broken off as we hear a scream, and then Carl's calling.

"MOM!"

"Carl?" Lori called as we both took off.

"DAD!" Others were grabbing guns and whatever was handy then followed.

I heard a girl calling. "MOMMY! MOMMY!"

"Rick!" Glenn called as he ran behind me, I turn and he threw me a pipe, I caught it not stopping in my strides to get to Carl. Lori was calling for our son, as we raced through the camp and woods to where we could hear the screams coming from. We finally saw the kids as they ran to us, Carl right into Lori's arms and the other girl, I later get her name as Sophie ran to Carol.

We ran to where they'd been playing, Lori asking Carl if he'd been bit or scratched, he assures her no, I lost the rest of it as I headed deeper down the hill we're camped. With Morales, Shane and Glenn behind me.

We made it to a clearing where there was a downed deer and a walker was making a meal out of it. Shane aimed his shot gun as we took in our surroundings and we figured there's only the one. There were two arrows in the butt of this Doe that's being fed on. I saw a third arrow protruding from its chest; it had to have been what took the deer down before the walker found it.

It started noticing the growing audience around it as Dale and some of the others from camp had joined us. The women were watching from a little further back. It turned to me and with a growl headed to attack me I hit it with the metal rod Glenn had tossed to me. Shane hit it with the butt of his shot gun, Glenn got a hit with his pipe, it fell to the ground and then we all wailed on it, until Dale finally took his ax and cut the fuckers head off.

"It's the first one we've had up here. They never come this far up the mountain." Dale said.

"Well, they're running out of food up the city, that's what." Jim told us.

It wasn't long after that, only a few seconds before we heard branches breaking, my thought went to another walker, everyone else as well as we prepared to attack again, Shane even aimed his gun as we waited. But it wasn't a walker, just a man, with short light brown hair and a cross bow in one hand. Clearly the man that shot the Doe, at the time I had no idea who he was, but I made a guess from what I'd heard. It was Daryl Dixon, Merle's brother.

"Oh, Jesus." Shane said with relief in his voice as he dropped his gun.

"Son of a bitch." Daryl said as he walked out of the woods and into the clearing where the Doe and the headless walker were.

"That's my deer. Look at it all gnawed on by this…Filthy, disease-bearing, motherless, poxy bastard!" He punctuated each thing at the walker as he kicked it. It was clear he wasn't happy about the loss of his deer. So, first impression of Daryl, he had a temper.

"Calm down son, that's not helping." Dale told him.

"What do you know about it, old man?" He asked Dale anger still in his voice. "Why don't you take that stupid hat and go back to 'On Golden Pond.'" Dale was wearing a light tan brimmed hat, like from the movie On Golden Pond. Daryl turned back to the deer with a sigh of frustration.

"I've been tracking this deer for miles." He started taking his arrows out as he continued, in a calmer voice. "Gonna drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison. What do you think? Do you think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?" He asked the group.

"I would not risk that." Shane told him.

"That's a damn shame." Daryl said at the end of a sigh, only this time it was a sigh of accepting the situation for what it was his temper cooled and demeanor less hostile. Second impression I got, Daryl's nothing like his brother.

"I got some squirrel, about a dozen or so, that'll have to do." He told us as he fixed a brown cord with the squirrels hanging from it on his shoulder, he was wearing a brown sleeveless shirt and jeans, he had some blondish brown goatee and mustache, he wasn't a bad looking man, if I swung that way of course.

The walkers head came alive then as it started opening and closing its mouth, I heard Amy. "Oh God." Before she turned and walked away with her sister.

"Come on people what the hell?" Daryl asked as he took his cross bow aimed it and shot an arrow right through the walker's eye. He then removed it. "It's gotta be the brain, don't y'all know nothing?" He asked before walking back to camp. I watched him go then headed that way too, it was confirmed who he was the next couple of minutes, that's when I got my third impression of Daryl.

"Merle." He called. "Merle! Get your ugly ass out here! I got us some squirrel! Let's stew 'em up." Shane put his gun in the jeep as he called to him.

"Daryl, just slow up a bit, I need to talk to you." Shane walked up to him.

"About what?" He sounded suspicious and a little confused at what was going on. The rest of us, Glenn, Morales, Dale and I were watching and waiting for Shane to give Daryl the bad news.

"About Merle. There was a—There was a problem in Atlanta." The girls were watching from the R.V, Andrea, Amy, and Lori standing there as Shane faced Daryl.

Daryl looked in our direction.

"He dead?" Daryl asked as he started to walk a little to the right and stopped a good five feet in front of the jeep.

"We're not sure."

"He either is or he ain't!" Daryl said to Shane as his temper started to rise again.

I step in then as I walked up to him. "No easy way to say this so I'll just say it." It's my responsibility to tell Daryl, not Shane's. Daryl looked at me.

"Who are you?" He asked.

"Rick Grimes." I informed him.

"Rick Grimes-" He said my name as some sort of insult, I didn't take it personally, he was just angry and I knew he wasn't going to like what I had to say. "You got something you want to tell me?" He asked.

I chose for the truth. "Your brother was a danger to us all, so I handcuffed him on a roof hooked him to a piece of metal. He's still there." At this point T-Dog came back to camp after having gone for wood his arms loaded as he took in the scene, I saw him, before putting my attention back on Daryl.

Daryl turned his back on us then, on me. "Hold on, let me process this. You're saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof, and you left him there?!" Daryl yelled at me, he was angry working on getting pissed and I didn't blame him. Third impression, he loved his brother, the strongest impression I'd ever gotten from him at that time, was he loved his brother.

"Yeah." I confirmed, Daryl then threw the squirrels at me, I ducked them as Shane cut him off from attacking which he'd been about to do.

"Hey." T-Dog said as he dropped the logs and headed to Daryl and Shane. Daryl had been knocked to the ground; he pulled a knife from his boot. "Watch the knife." T-Dog warned.

Daryl came at me again slashed, I dodged, he tried again I grabbed his arm. Later I found out that Glenn was freaking out, trying not to because the guy he loved was trying to kill the guy he saved. With Shane's help I finally got him restrained and under control

"Okay, okay." Shane said in his ear as I got Daryl to release the knife. I picked up the knife and put it in the back of my jeans.

"You'd best let me go!" Daryl told him as Shane put his arm around Daryl's neck.

"Nah, I think it's better if I don't."

"Don't hurt him." Glenn said, I glanced at him and saw unshed tears in his eyes. I'm not sure if Daryl noticed or not, but that was my first clue there had been more going on between Daryl and Glenn.

"Choke holds illegal." Daryl told Shane as he was pushed to the ground.

"You can file a complaint." Shane said calmly as he continued to fight with Daryl until Daryl ran out of steam.

"Come on man, we'll keep this up all day." Shane told him, Daryl was panting and breathing hard and some tears from Glenn finally fell as he turned his back to what was going on so he could compose himself, I got down to Daryl's level on the ground where Shane was holding him.

"I'd like to have a calm discussion on this topic. Do you think we can manage that?" He didn't answer so I asked again. "Do you think we can manage that?"

"Hmm." Shane said with one arm still around Daryl's throat his other hand on Daryl's forehead as his fighting slowly stopped he barely nodded, so Shane let him go. I'd glanced back at Glenn who was watching with the rest again, looking as if he'd never shed a tear.

I was back to business. "What I did was not on a whim." I told Daryl who was still on the ground. "Your brother does not work and play well with others." T-Dog chose that moment to speak up.

"It's not Rick's fault, I had the key, I dropped it."

"You couldn't pick it up?" Daryl asked agitated.

"Well, I dropped it in a drain."

Daryl got to his hands and knees panting, the rest of us waited for his next move. He stood up, threw some dirt on the ground as he spoke to T-Dog. "If it's supposed to make me feel better, it don't." He walked a little closer to T-Dog but keeping a safe distance from him.

"Well, maybe this will. Look I chained the door to the roof—so the geeks couldn't get at him—with a padlock." He informed Daryl.

"It's gotta count for something." I said to his back. He looked to me, then T-Dog, then the ground, he wiped his eyes I'm sure tears.

"Hell with all y'all!" Daryl yelled at us as he threw his hand in a wide sweep. "Just tell me where he is." There was hysteria and a note of pleading in his voice. "So's I can go get him." He was coming at me then, when Lori spoke.

"He'll show you." My wife the woman that's constantly changing her mind and not knowing what she truly wants. I loved her, in a lot of ways I still do, but bad things happen.

"Isn't that right?" She asked.

"I'm going back." Lori turned into the R.V and went inside then. Daryl walked away; I sighed before going to the tent and change into the clean clothes Carlo had taken care of for me. I walked out of the tent as I'm buttoning up my uniform. I saw Shane there just waiting for me.

"So that's it, huh? You're just gonna walk off? Just to hell with everybody else?" He asked.

"I'm not saying to hell with anybody—not you Shane; Lori least of all." I walk off; he kept talking to my back.

"Tell _her_ that."

I look at him. "She knows." I don't stay long to hear a reply time's a wasting and so is the light.

He follows me still talking. "Well, look, I—I don't okay, Rick? So could you just—could you throw me a bone here, man? Could you just tell me why?" I noticed Daryl grabbing his cross bow and arrows. "Why would you risk your life for a douche bag like Merle Dixon?"

"Hey, choose your words more carefully." Daryl told him using one of his arrows to point at him, but keeping the sharp tip at his inner arm so it didn't hurt anyone.

Shane looked at him as he replied. "Oh, no, I did. Douche bag's what I meant. Merle Dixon—the guy wouldn't give you a glass of water if you were dying of thirst." We've stopped walking and I've faced him now.

"What he would or wouldn't do doesn't interest me. _I_ can't let a man die of thirst—_me_. Thirst and exposure. We left him like an animal caught in a trap, that's no way for anything to die let alone a human being." Lori was sitting at one of the camp fires that hadn't been lit yet spoke up.

"So you and Daryl that's your big plan?" Carl was sitting next to her and Amy was standing right there just like everyone else watching and listening to what was being said. I looked at her before turning to Glenn who was standing in front of what use to be that nice sports car, now it's just a pile of steel not going anywhere.

He knew what I was going to ask. "Oh, come on." It was clear he didn't want to go back.

"You know the way, you've been there before—in and out no problem, you said so yourself." He took off his cap and ran his hand through his hair. If I'd known what had been growing inside him, I would never had suggested it and Daryl sure as hell wouldn't have let him come even if he'd wanted to, but sad thing is, at the time, we had no idea.

He put his cap back on as I continued to talk him into leading us. "It's not fair of me to ask—I know that—but I'd feel a lot better with you along. I know she would too." I pointed to Lori.

"That's just great, now you're gonna risk three men, huh?" Shane asked.

"Four." T-Dog chimes in as he volunteers.

Daryl huffed while he's cleaning his arrows. "My day just gets better and better, don't it?"

"You see anybody else here stepping up to save your brother's cracker ass?" T-Dog asked him.

"Why you?" Is Daryl's reply.

"You wouldn't even begin to understand, you don't speak my language."

"That's four." Dale said.

"It's not just four; you're putting every single one of us at risk." Shane told me. "Just know that Rick, come on, you saw that walker. It was _here_ it was in _camp._ They're moving out of the cities. They come back we need every able body we've got, we need 'em here we need 'em to _protect _camp." He'd moved up closer to me as he spoke trying to get his point across.

"It seems to me what you really need most here are more guns." I informed him.

"Right, the guns." Glenn said catching onto what I was getting at.

"Wait, the guns you dropped?" Shane asked remembering last night of the retelling I'd given.

"Six shotguns, two high-powered rifles, over a dozen handguns." I listed off what had been in the bag. "It's just sitting there on the street waiting to be picked up."

"Ammo?" Shane asked, he looked slightly more interested then.

"700 rounds, assorted."

"You went through hell to find us. You just got here and you're gonna turn around and leave?" Lori asked.

"Dad, I don't want you to go." Carl told me.

"To hell with the guns Shane is _right."_ Lori would say one thing and then do something completely different; she never knew what she wanted. She was like that before the walkers, looked like it hadn't changed any.

"Merle Dixon?" She questioned. "He's not worth one of your lives even with guns thrown in." She stood up, it was clear then she was scared and I could understand. I walked over to her as she continued to talk. "Tell me, make me understand."

"I owe a debt to Morgan and his little boy. Lori, if they hadn't taken me in, I'd have died. It's because of them that I made it back to you at all. They said they'd follow me to Atlanta, they'll walk into the same trap I did if I don't warn him."

"What's stopping you?" She asked.

"The walkie-talkie, the one in the bag I dropped, he's got the other one, our plan was to connect when they got closer."

"These are our walkies?" Shane asked.

"Yeah." I'd taken them from the squad car we used before I got shot.

"So use the C.B. what's wrong with that?" Andrea asked.

"The C.B.'s fine. It's the walkies that suck to crap—date back to the '70s, don't match any other bandwidth—not even the scanners in our cars." Shane informed her.

"I need that bag." I said with conviction, she looked down, that was her way of giving consent. I walkrd to Carl then and knelt down in front of where he was sitting.

"Okay?" I asked. Carl looked at me, then nodded yes. "Alright." I put my hand on his head.

Daryl and Glenn got the delivery truck ready as T-Dog and I foud a way to get the chain off the door once we get there. I got some news about Dale and headed over to him. "Rumor is you have bolt cutters?" I asked.

"Maybe." Dale said.

"Yeah, we get to that roof, though; we'll need to cut that chain and the handcuffs." T-Dog informed Dale.

"I never like lending tools, the last time I did—and yes I am talking about you—" Dale pointed to T-Dog then continued. "Let's just say your bag of guns wasn't the only bag that was dropped. My tools got left behind with Merle."

"We'll bring your tools back too." I told him. "Think of the bolt cutters as an investment."

"Sounds like more of a gamble." Dale mumbled as he got the cutters. Before handing them over Dale asked. "What do I get in return?"

"What do you want?" I asked back.

"How 'bout one of those guns you bring back, my pick."

"Done."

Jim clears his throat; he'd been sitting next to Dale as we'd discussed the bolt cutters. "Dale, let's uh… sweeten the deal a bit. Now that cube van of yours—"

"What about it?" I asked when he paused.

"The R.V's radiator hose is shot. That's a problem if we need to get somewhere and wanna get very far, and the hose on that van is just about a perfect match—well, enough that I can make it fit."

"I'll tell you what—we get back, you can strip that van down to the bare metal." I hear the vans horn honking, I turn and Daryl's there and he turned to us then and yelled. "Come on, let's go!"

Dale hands me the bolt cutters. "Thank you." I pass it to T-Dog as we walk to the truck.

"Hey, Rick, got any rounds in the python?" Shane asked after we stopped at the truck. He had one of the sheriff bags and placed it on the back of the van before opening it.

"No." I told him.

"Last time we were on the gun range, I'm sure I wound up with a few loose rounds of yours." I shook my head as I watched him.

"You and that bag—like the bottom of an old lady's purse."

"I hate that you're doing this, man. I think that it's foolish and reckless, but if you're gonna go you're taking bullets." Shane always spoke his mind not giving a damn on how it came out.

"I'm not sure I'd want to fire a shot in the city, not after what happened last time." I told him.

"That's up to you." He held some ammo for my gun in his hands. "Four men, four rounds. What are the odds, huh? Well, let's just hope that—let's just hope four is your lucky number, okay?" He hands me the bullets.

"Thank you." I told him, then went to get in the front of the truck.

"Alright." He said as I left.

I got into the passenger side next to Glenn, pulled out my handgun, opened the chamber, and loaded the four bullets Shane had given me. I heard the back of the truck be pulled down; I saw it was Daryl who'd closed it before focusing on my gun again. Glenn started it up again, revved it and then headed out to Atlanta.

Daryl and T-Dog were talking in the back as Glenn was driving and I was listening in. "He'd better be okay; it's my only word on the matter." Daryl told T-Dog.

"I told you the geeks can't get at him. The only thing that's gonna get through that door is us." Glenn parked the truck then and shut it off. He turned to us.

"We walk from here." It was some train station with railroad tracks that Glenn had chosen to park. We got out of the truck and started for the store. T-Dog must've been wrapped up in thought, he'd set the bolt cutters down at some point during the ride and forgot them. We didn't know this until we needed them.

We ran until we found a fence to get us in the back way, Glenn went to a part that was cut and pushed it aside so we could get through. Once on the other side I turned to the group and asked. "Merle first or guns?"

"Merle!" Daryl said. "We ain't even having this conversation."

"We are." I told him emphatically. I looked to Glenn then. "You know the geography it's your call."

"Merle's closest; the guns would mean doubling back. Merle first." Later after I found out his feelings for Daryl, I asked Glenn if he'd been telling the truth about picking Merle first, he said partly, the other part was because he loved Daryl. I respected his honesty.

Once we got to the store we went slowly, took our time, being careful. I stopped them as I saw something, looked to Daryl and Glenn; pointed to my eyes then the walker I'd seen at one of the aisles of clothes.

It had been a woman, she came out from behind a manikin, and Daryl took point then with his cross bow. He moved so he'd have an unobstructed shot. "Damn, you are one ugly skank." He lined up the shot and got her right in the head, she went down like a sack of potatoes. Daryl walked up to her and pulled his arrow out, it was a sickening sound, Glenn looked a little sick but controlled himself.

We got to the stairs and started to run up to the locked door, thankful that it was clear of any walkers. I saw the padlock and looked to T-Dog who was empty handed; no one had the bolt cutters. Daryl looked at us. "You shit." He grabbed the chain and started to pull and yank calling for his brother on the other side letting him know we're here. There was no answer to his calls.

After a few minutes Glenn grabbed Daryl's shirt and pulled him away. "We'll get to him Daryl." I heard as he walked away to calm Daryl down. I grabbed the padlock and looked at it, I grabbed the chains with my other hand, there was some blood on it from Daryl's hand where he'd pulled and yanked, I looked and saw Glenn putting a bandanna around his left hand where it was bleeding as they were talking in hushed tones. In my anger I pulled and there was a loud snap as the chains broke as if they'd been made of paper instead of metal, the padlock had snapped in my grip when I'd tightened my hand in frustration I hadn't even realized it. T-Dog saw this and called Glenn and Daryl back, they saw the chain and what I'd done, but instead of questioning it we opened the door and ran out onto the roof.

"Merle! Merle!" Daryl called as he ran out to where his brother had been cuffed for the last twenty-four hours. We stopped as Daryl stopped, Merle wasn't there, but something much worse was. "No! No!" Daryl screamed, he looked at us with anger and tears in his eyes and his emotions took over. "NO!" Merle had gotten a saw that had been left up here, and cut his own hand off, leaving it behind, and both the saw and the cuffs were bloody. Daryl kept screaming no as he broke down. There was nothing else we could do.


End file.
